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Chapter 401 Illegally Manufactured Arms

Lu Yan was slightly taken aback, but following the previous conversation, he understood what Lu Qing meant and quickly nodded: "That's exactly what I was thinking too."

I can't say I have any particular strengths, but I am certainly self-aware. I know I have no great ambitions or aspirations, so I requested a fiefdom early on to defend the border for my father. I thought that being able to live in a remote corner while leading troops across the battlefield to protect my home and country would be quite pleasant.

I never imagined that the world was not as simple as I thought; it's not something I could escape unscathed by simply not competing or fighting.

"In that case, I will rely on my elder brothers' care from now on."

Lu Qing smiled and nodded, then reminded him, "Your second brother has already rushed back this time, so you shouldn't linger in Landi any longer, lest someone take advantage of you and cause you trouble in the future."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yan smiled.

“It seems that my brother’s information is not up to par this time.” Since the previous conversation had gone this far, Lu Yan naturally did not hide anything, and his tone was quite gloating. “I had already heard some rumors when I was in the fiefdom. There are some rumors in the capital that seem to be not particularly favorable to that old scoundrel Zhao Bi.”

I reckon Zhao Bi must have been really troubled lately, otherwise he wouldn't have been too busy to send someone to call Lu Zhang back, and he certainly wouldn't have let him bring his men to Lan Di to meddle.

Perhaps he'll run into Zhao Bi's men on his way back.

"Oh? What rumors are you talking about? I haven't heard of them." Lu Qing looked quite interested. With the groundwork laid by their previous conversation, she asked directly without any beating around the bush.

Lu Yan clearly preferred this straightforward communication style, so when Lu Qing asked him, he immediately replied, "Brother, you may not know this, but General Cao, who has been staying in the capital for a long time, recently encountered some trouble."

Lu Qing and Zhu Yu exchanged a glance, remaining silent. They wondered if the "trouble" that Lu Yan mentioned about General Cao was the same incident where his nephew was almost framed as a murderer.

After all, Lu Yan had indeed been very disciplined since he received the imperial decree and went to his fiefdom. He did not approach the capital of Jin Kingdom without being summoned by Emperor Jin.

If it weren't for the suspected murder of the tax collectors he sent out this time, he probably wouldn't have been so enraged that he led his troops away from his fiefdom and ran to Lan.

“Hasn’t Cao Tianbao been holding great power all these years?” Seeing that Lu Qing and the other two were silent, assuming that they knew nothing about it, Lu Yan continued, “I heard that just a few days ago, someone suddenly submitted a memorial to the Emperor, saying that there was a batch of weapons of unknown origin in Cao Tianbao’s military camp. The report was very detailed and convincing.”

The emperor summoned Cao Tianbao to inquire about the matter. Cao Tianbao flew into a rage, asserting that someone was trying to frame him, and seemed to think that the emperor's involvement in the matter was a disheartening act for an old minister.

The emperor was displeased, so he stopped asking Cao Tianbao and simply ordered people to investigate.

It would have been better if we hadn't investigated; the investigation actually revealed a problem.

Indeed, Cao Tianbao's army had a batch of newly issued armor and weapons, all made of black iron, and the weapons bore the seal of the Ministry of War's Treasury Department.

"Then this wouldn't be considered manufacturing weapons illegally?" Lu Qing asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Yes, that’s the interesting part.” Lu Yan twitched the corner of his mouth. “Those black iron weapons do indeed bear the seal of the Treasury Department. At first glance, they appear to be weapons manufactured and distributed under the supervision of the imperial court, without any problems. But the problem is that when Father Emperor sent people to the Treasury Department to retrieve the relevant records, he discovered that although the batch of weapons newly acquired by Cao Tianbao’s troops bore the Treasury Department’s seal, they were not recorded in the Treasury Department’s ledgers.”

In other words, the Ministry of War's Warehouse Department never supervised the manufacture and distribution of such a batch of weapons to Cao Tianbao's army from beginning to end.

Even if the weapons and swords under Cao Tianbao's command bore the mark of the Ministry of War, they could only have been forged or counterfeited in private.

After hearing this, Zhu Yu felt that Lu Yan's tone seemed a bit too certain: "Couldn't it be that there's a mistake in the records from the Ministry of War?"

"Such a thing is indeed possible. I heard that when Father Emperor took Cao Tianbao's old face into consideration, he also considered this aspect first. So he ordered someone to summon the person in charge of registering, supervising the manufacture and distribution of weapons from the Ministry of War's Armory Department to the palace to explain it in detail."

After entering the palace, the man insisted that his accounts were crystal clear and there would be no mistakes. For many years, he had worked diligently and meticulously in his duties, never making the slightest mistake.

When he finally saw that his father was still doubtful, he even tried to prove his point by banging his head against a pillar. Luckily, someone pulled him back, and he suffered a large gash on his forehead, bleeding profusely, but he survived.

The Emperor felt that this person's attitude was genuine, but Cao Tianbao also loudly proclaimed his innocence, which ultimately put the Emperor in a difficult position.

Although the matter was eventually dropped, with the Emperor ordering the Ministry of War to supplement the records of the armor and weapons in Cao Tianbao's army and then letting it go, and no one was to mention it again, it still caused quite a stir, and many rumors circulated throughout the capital.

Some say that Cao Tianbao's repeated scandals have almost completely eroded his reputation with the emperor.

I was puzzled at the time. I had heard about the private manufacture of weapons, but what did "one after another" mean?

I originally thought that Lu Zhang would never tell me about this, so I was thinking of finding some time to ask my brother about it.

I didn't expect that my brother hadn't even heard about Cao Tianbao's illegal weapon manufacturing. It seems his information network isn't much better than mine.

Lu Yan's tone sounded somewhat disappointed.

Zhu Yu touched his nose, thinking that this guy really guessed wrong. Lu Qing didn't know that Cao Tianbao's army was involved in the private manufacture of weapons. He guessed that it was related to their departure for Shuo Kingdom and the time they spent there.

After all, Lu Zhang seemed unaware of this matter, which just proves that the incident occurred after Lu Zhang volunteered to go out on patrol.

On the contrary, what Cao Tianbao called "one thing after another" – what exactly happened before – was clear to both of them, as well as Lu Zhang. Only Lu Yan, who was far away from the capital, was unaware of it.

Lu Qing clearly wasn't considering that, nor did he have the inclination to recount the past events to Lu Yan at this crucial juncture.

"Such an inconclusive outcome, seemingly protecting General Cao, actually only makes things more difficult for him to explain himself," he asked Lu Yan. "Why didn't His Majesty suspect that someone in the Ministry of War framed Cao Tianbao? Just because that fellow proved his innocence with his death?"